Nintendo 3DS mockup suggests asymmetric screens

This, according to Kotaku‘s mock-up artists, is what we should expect from the Nintendo 3DS when the 3D-capable gaming handheld makes its official debut at E3 next week. The design, based on a sketch by a Chinese blogger who apparently claims to have a 3DS development kit, certainly fits in with what we’ve seen before of Nintendo’s testing hardware; the upper display would be the glasses-free 3D panel believed to be sourced from Sharp, while the lower would be a touchscreen of the same aspect ratio as the current DSi.

The gaming site goes on to further run through the various rumors about the 3DS, discounting the possibility of an analog stick – they believe any such control would be done via the touchscreen – and mentioning that the Chinese source highlighted the 3DS’ MP3/AAC hardware decoding and onboard media playback. Meanwhile there’s also talk of a new, proprietary game cartridge, expected to be around the size of a CompactFlash card, as well as backward compatibility with DS games.

A 3D-capable camera has also been suggested – the grey section above the D-pad in the above mock-up – which is expected to be sourced, again, from Sharp and allow for capturing 3D video and stills. Of course, we won’t know for sure until next Tuesday at Nintendo’s keynote at E3.